C’s try to deep six the Hawks

Friday

May 2, 2008 at 6:00 AM

By Bill Doyle TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

The NBA is promoting its playoffs with clever advertisements featuring two half-faces forming one head. In one ad, half of Kevin Garnett’s face makes up one side and half of LeBron James’ face forms the other side.

Apparently, the Celtics enjoy the ads so much, they’ve decided to display a split personality.

At home, Boston makes up one side of the face, playing like the team that compiled the NBA’s best regular-season record. On the road, however, the Green show a different side and haven’t been able to beat the worst team to make the playoffs.

At 8 tonight at Philips Arena, the Celtics have a chance to shed their reputation as a two-faced team. The top-seeded Celtics visit the No. 8 Hawks, needing a victory to capture the best-of-seven opening-round series. If the Hawks beat the Celtics for the third time on their home court in the series, Game 7 will be played on Sunday at Boston’s TD Banknorth Garden.

The Celtics built the league’s best road record (31-10) during the regular season, but have gone 0-2 in Atlanta in the postseason. As Garnett pointed out, Philips Arena has rocked during the playoffs like he’s never seen it before, but every building is loud in the postseason. That’s no excuse for the veteran-laden Celtics not to handle Atlanta’s athletic, but young and inexperienced team.

By owning the homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs, the C’s don’t need to win on the road to capture their 17th NBA championship. But they’d have to be perfect at home. That would be a tall order — and not just later on in the playoffs. The Celtics don’t even want a seventh game at home against the Hawks, and can avoid that pressure-packed situation by ending the series here tonight.

“It’s going to be an amazing atmosphere down there,” Boston coach Doc Rivers said, “and we’re going to have to go in there and play like (Wednesday). If the offense isn’t as good as it was (Wednesday), then we still have to win the game with our defense.”

In winning their three home games in this series, the Celtics have outscored the Hawks by average of 103-81 and shot 47.4 percent. The Hawks have failed to win any of the 12 quarters at the Garden so far.

In losing their two games in Atlanta, the Celts have been outscored by an average of 99-92 and have shot only 42.7 percent. The teams have split the eight quarters, but the Hawks have prevailed when it counts the most. Most importantly, Boston’s defense — the NBA’s best during the regular season — has allowed the Hawks to shoot 47.6 percent in Atlanta, compared to 39 percent in Boston.

Containing Joe Johnson and Josh Smith will be pivotal for the Celtics tonight because the Hawks really don’t have anyone else to pick up the slack.

In Boston, Johnson has averaged 17 points, 3.3 assists and shot 39.5 percent. In Atlanta, he has averaged 29 points, 6 assists and shot 50 percent. In Boston, Smith has averaged 12.3 points and shot 27.8 percent, while he has more than doubled those figures in Atlanta to 27.5 points and 57.6 percent.

Hawks point guard Mike Bibby also has played much better at home (15 points and 5 assists) than in Boston (7.7 points and 1.0 assists).

“We’re not very disciplined on the road in running our offense,” Johnson said, “or getting into sets or moving the basketball and in defensive principles, and that’s what cost us. That’s why we’ve lost on the road in the playoffs by like 20 points.”

Believe it or not, the stats of Boston’s starters have been as good or better on the road than at home in this series. Garnett has averaged 26 points and 9.5 rebounds in Atlanta compared to 18.3 points and 8.3 rebounds in Boston. The numbers for Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Rajon Rondo are about even in both places.

The major difference for Boston has been the play of the bench. At home, the Celtics’ reserves have scored 36, 28 and 35 points. On the road, they’ve totaled 11 and 13 points, but also have received far fewer minutes. Sam Cassell has averaged 11 points at home, just 1 on the road. Leon Powe has averaged 7.7 points and 4.7 rebounds at home, only 1.5 points and 1.0 rebounds on the road. James Posey is the exception, scoring slightly higher on the road, though rebounding better at home.

“We have to have the same focus, even more so on the road,” Posey said. “Just buckle down and we just have to do it there. We can’t change, but we have to raise our intensity level more and just be solid.”

The Celtics simplified things for Cassell when he made 6 of 8 shots and scored 13 points in Game 5 Wednesday after he failed to score at all in Game 4.

“I gave him four plays,” Rivers said. “I said if we can push the ball and not run anything, I’m fine by that because it’s transition. We call it random.”

The Celts watched video yesterday before flying to Atlanta at 3 p.m. The team was not made available to the media.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.